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"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think." ...Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

"There is no such thing as security for any nation-or any individual-ina world ruled by the principles of gangsterism."

Address over the radio following the declaration of a state of war with the Japanese Empire, December 9, 1941

The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacificprovide the climax of a decade of international immorality.

Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war uponthe whole human race. Their challenge has now been flung at the UnitedStates of America. The Japanese have treacherously violated the long-standing peace between us. Many American soldiers and sailors have beenkilled by enemy action. American ships have been sunk, Americanairplanes have been destroyed.

The Congress and the people of the United States have accepted thatchallenge.

Together with other free peoples, we are now fighting to maintain ourright to live among our world neighbors in freedom and in commondecency, without fear of assault.

I have prepared the full record of our past relations with Japan, and itwill be submitted to the Congress. It begins with the visit of CommodorePerry to Japan 88 years ago. It ends with the visit of two Japaneseemissaries to the Secretary of State last Sunday, an hour after Japaneseforces had loosed their bombs and machine guns against our flag, ourforces, and our citizens.

I can say with utmost confidence that no Americans today or a thousandyears hence, need feel anything but pride in our patience and ourefforts through all the years toward achieving a peace in the Pacificwhich would be fair and honorable to every nation, large or small. Andno honest person, today or a thousand years hence, will be able tosuppress a sense of indignation and horror at the treachery committed bythe military dictators of Japan, under the very shadow of the flag ofpeace borne by their special envoys in our midst.

The course that Japan has followed for the past 10 years in Asia hasparalleled the course of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and Africa.Today, it has become far more than a parallel. It is collaboration sowell calculated that all the continents of the world, and all theoceans, are now considered by the Axis strategists as one giganticbattlefield.

In 1940, Italy attacked France and later Greece-without warning. In1941, the Axis Powers attacked Jugoslavia and Greece and they dominatedthe Balkans-without warning.

In 1941, Hitler invaded Russia-without warning.

And now Japan has attacked Malaya and Thailand-and the United States-without warning.

It is all of one pattern.

We are now in this war. We are all in it-all the way. Every single man,woman, and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of ourAmerican history. We must share together the bad news and the good news,the defeats and the victories-the changing fortunes of war.

So far, the news has all been bad. We have suffered a serious setback inHawaii. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people ofthat commonwealth, are taking punishment, but are defending themselvesvigorously. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway Islands are stillconfused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all thesethree outposts have been seized.

The casualty lists of these first few days will undoubtedly be large. Ideeply feel the anxiety of all families of the men in our armed forcesand the relatives of people in cities which have been bombed. I can onlygive them my solemn promise that they will get news just as quickly aspossible.

This Government will put its trust in the stamina of the Americanpeople, and will give the facts to the public as soon as two conditionshave been fulfilled: First, that the information has been definitely andofficially confirmed; and, second, that the release of the informationat the time it is received will not prove valuable to the enemy directlyor indirectly.

Most earnestly I urge my countrymen to reject all rumors. These uglylittle hints of complete disaster fly thick and fast in wartime. Theyhave to be examined and appraised.

As an example, I can tell you frankly that until further surveys aremade, I have not sufficient information to state the exact damage whichhas been done to our naval vessels at Pearl Harbor. Admittedly thedamage is serious. But no one can say how serious, until we know howmuch of this damage can be repaired and how quickly the necessaryrepairs can be made.

I cite as another example a statement made on Sunday night that aJapanese carrier had been located and sunk off the Canal Zone. And whenyou hear statements that are attributed to what they call "anauthoritative source," you can be reasonably sure that under these warcircumstances the "authoritative source" was not any person inauthority.

Many rumors and reports which we now hear originate with enemy sources.For instance, today the Japanese are claiming that as a result of theirone action against Hawaii they have gained naval supremacy in thePacific. This is an old trick of propaganda which has been usedinnumerable times by the Nazis. The purposes of such fantastic claimsare, of course, to spread fear and confusion among us, and to goad usinto revealing military information which our enemies are desperatelyanxious to obtain.

Our Government will not be caught in this obvious trap-and neither willour people.

It must be remembered by each and every one of us that our free andrapid communication must be greatly restricted in wartime. It is notpossible to receive full, speedy, accurate reports from distant areas ofcombat. This is particularly true where naval operations are concerned.For in these days of the marvels of radio it is often impossible for thecommanders of various units to report their activities by radio, for thevery simple reason that this information would become available to theenemy, and would disclose their position and their plan of defense orattack.

Of necessity there will be delays in officially confirming or denyingreports of operations but we will not hide facts from the country if weknow the facts and if the enemy will not be aided by their disclosure.

To all newspapers and radio stations-all those who reach the eyes andears of the American people-I say this: You have a most graveresponsibility to the Nation now and for the duration of this war.

If you feel that your Government is not disclosing enough of the truth,you have very right to say so. But-in the absence of all the facts, asrevealed by official sources-you have no right to deal out unconfirmedreports in such a way as to make people believe they are gospel truth.

Every citizen, in every walk of life, shares this same responsibility.The lives of our soldiers and sailors-the whole future of this Nation-depend upon the manner in which each and every one of us fulfills hisobligation to our country.

Now a word about the recent past-and the future. A year and a half haselapsed since the fall of France, when the whole world first realizedthe mechanized might which the Axis nations had been building for somany years. America has used that year and a half to great advantage.Knowing that the attack might reach us in all too short a time, weimmediately began greatly to increase our industrial strength and ourcapacity to meet the demands of modern warfare.

Precious months were gained by sending vast quantities of our warmaterials to the nations of the world still able to resist Axisaggression. Our policy rested on the fundamental truth that the defenseof any country resisting Hitler or Japan was in the long run the defenseof our own country. That policy has been justified. It has given ustime, invaluable time, to build our American assembly lines ofproduction.

Assembly lines are now in operation. Others are being rushed tocompletion. A steady stream of tanks and planes, of guns and ships, ofshells and equipment-that is what these 18 months have given us.

But it is all only a beginning of what has to be done. We must be set toface a long war against crafty and powerful bandits. The attack at PearlHarbor can be repeated at any one of many points in both oceans andalong both our coast lines and against all the rest of the hemisphere.

It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war. That is the basison which we now lay all our plans. That is the yardstick by which wemeasure what we shall need and demand-money, materials, doubled andquadrupled production, ever increasing. The production must be not onlyfor our own Army and Navy and air forces. It must reinforce the otherarmies and navies and air forces fighting the Nazis and the war lords ofJapan throughout the Americas and the world.

I have been working today on the subject of production. Your Governmenthas decided on two broad policies.

The first is to speed up all existing production by working on a 7-day-week basis in every war industry, including the production of essentialraw materials.

The second policy, now being put into form, is to rush additions to thecapacity of production by building more new plants, by adding to oldplants, and by using the many smaller plants for war needs.

Over the hard road of the past months we have at times met obstacles anddifficulties, divisions and disputes, indifference and callousness. Thatis now all past and, I am sure, forgotten.

The fact is that the country now has an organization in Washington builtaround men and women who are recognized experts in their own fields. Ithink the country knows that the people who are actually responsible ineach and every one of these many fields are pulling together with ateamwork that has never before been excelled.

On the road ahead there lies hard work-grueling work-day and night,every hour and every minute.

I was about to add that ahead there lies sacrifice for all of us.

But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does notconsider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one's best to ourNation when the Nation is fighting for its existence and its futurelife.

It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army orthe Navy of the United States. Rather is it a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage earner, thefarmer or the shopkeeper, the trainman or the doctor, to pay more taxes,to buy more bonds, to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder atthe task for which he is best fitted. Rather is it a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice to do without many things to which we areaccustomed if the national defense calls for doing without.

A review this morning leads me to the conclusion that at present weshall not have to curtail the normal articles of food. There is enoughfood for all of us and enough left over to send to those who arefighting on the same side with us.

There will be a clear and definite shortage of metals of many kinds forcivilian use, for the very good reason that in our increased program weshall need for war purposes more than half of that portion of theprincipal metals which during the past year have gone into articles forcivilian use. We shall have to give up many things entirely.

I am sure that the people in every part of the Nation are prepared intheir individual living to win this war. I am sure they will cheerfullyhelp to pay a large part of its financial cost while it goes on I amsure they will cheerfully give up those material things they are askedto give up.

I am sure that they will retain all those great spiritual things withoutwhich we cannot win through.

I repeat that the United States can accept no result save victory, finaland complete. Not only must the shame of Japanese treachery be wipedout, but the sources of international brutality, wherever they exist,must be absolutely and finally broken.

In my message to the Congress yesterday I said that take very certainthat this form of treachery shall never we "will endanger

us again." In order to achieve that certainty, we must begin the greattask that is before us by abandoning once and for all the illusion thatwe can ever again isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.

In these past few years-and, most violently, in the past few days-wehave learned a terrible lesson.

It is our obligation to our dead-it is our sacred obligation to theirchildren and our children-that we must never forget what we havelearned.

And what we all have learned is this:

There is no such thing as security for any nation-or any individual-in aworld ruled by the principles of gangsterism.

There is no such thing as impregnable defense against powerfulaggressors who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.

We have learned that our ocean-girt hemisphere is not immune from severeattack-that we cannot measure our safety in terms of miles on any map.

We may acknowledge that our enemies have performed a brilliant feat ofdeception, perfectly timed and executed with great skill. It was athoroughly dishonorable deed, but we must face the fact that modernwarfare as conducted in the Nazi manner is a dirty business. We don'tlike it-we didn't want to get in it-but we are in it and we're going tofight it with everything we've got.

I do not think any American has any doubt of our ability to administerproper punishment to the perpetrators of these crimes.

Your Government knows that for weeks Germany has been telling Japan thatif Japan did not attack the United States, Japan would not share individing the spoils with Germany when peace came. She was promised byGermany that if she came in she would receive the complete and perpetualcontrol of the whole of the Pacific area-and that means not only the FarEast, not only all of the islands in the Pacific but also a strangleholdon the west coast of North, Central, and South America.

We also know that Germany and Japan are conducting their military andnaval operations in accordance with a joint plan. That plan considersall peoples and nations which are not helping the Axis Powers as commonenemies of each and every one of the Axis Powers.

That is their simple and obvious grand strategy. That is why theAmerican people must realize that it can be matched only with similargrand strategy. We must realize for example that Japanese successesagainst the United States in the Pacific are helpful to Germanoperations in Libya; that any German success against the Caucasus isinevitably an assistance to Japan in her operations against the DutchEast Indies; that a German attack against Algiers or Morocco opens theway to a German attack against South America.

On the other side of the picture, we must learn to know that guerrillawarfare against the Germans in Serbia helps us; that a successfulRussian offensive against the Germans helps us; and that Britishsuccesses on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formaldeclaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States atthis moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britainand Russia. And Germany puts all the other

republics of the Americas into the category of enemies. The people ofthe hemisphere can be honored by that.

The true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle.When we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that thisforce shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as againstimmediate evil. We Americans are not destroyers; we are builders.

We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance,but for a world in which this Nation, and all that this Nation represents, will be safe for our children. We expect to eliminate thedanger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished that andfound that the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini.

We are going to win the war, and we are going to win the peace thatfollows.

And in the dark hours of this day-and through dark days that may be yetto come-we will know that the vast majority of the members of the humanrace are on our side. Many of them are fighting with us. All of them arepraying for us. For, in representing our cause, we represent theirs aswell-our hope and their hope for liberty under God.

3 comments:

Good for you Lowell, you're the only local blogger that even thought to mention what happened on a Sunday morning, just like today, sixty seven years ago on this date.

Where the hell are today's Republicans? Licking their wounds and trying to rationalize how the country betrayed them? Patriotism is only useful to them for election purposes. Otherwise they're willing to let our wounded and disabled veterans rot away, forgotten.